I, too, started with a Hawkeye Brownie in the 1950's and graduated to an Argus C3 then C44 before 1960. The first enlarger's brand escapes me. It is similar to the older Omega enlargers.

Coming from a small community, I started working for the newspaper at a young age. I worked with newspapers until I got expelled from college for working on a underground newspaper at college (it was the 60's ;-), and and lost my draft deferment. I worked for a studio in Dallas and the AP as a stringer covering local and national election coverage until I was dragged into the Army... ;-)

I covered Vietnam as a photographer from 1969 through 1970. We used Nikon and Hasselblad, I used Nikon because of what I was doing. It was easier to carry. Three cameras for B&W, 3 for color; wide, normal, and telephoto for each medium, no lens changing. Stainless steel reels, 8 reels to a tank, 3 tanks to a rotary base, so we could process about 24 reels at a time. I think we were using big englargers for 4x5 film with 35mm carriers - Durst (I think).

I bought a Yashica twin lens D (Rollie-like) camera for $12 in Vietnam and a Nikon F with 4 lens that I had for a long time.

We shot a lot of film. The weather and circumstances were hard on the equipment, and we went through a lot of cameras and lenses.

After I came home, I went to work for a wire service as a photographer (more shooting, a lot more film), and finished college and graduate school, and returned to service and worked as an Infantry officer, but also edited military publications and had management oversight for photography and media. I retired from active duty some time ago. I worked for the US Air Force at their Air University as a Professor and retired a few years ago.

Fortunately, I've been assigned close to colleges and universities where I've been able to teach journalism and photography and language.

I was interested in photography in high school but my art teacher said that I had no artistic talent. About 6 years ago I bought my first digital camera then 3 years ago my first DSLR. In late 2010 I was asked to be the official photographer for the Aston Martin 75th Anniversary National Rally. I also have a couple of friends in advertising who use me for corporate and event shoots.

Yes I get paid, but it's not consistent enough to be able to walk away from the corporate world. Yet.

kenadams said:
Funny thing is, I'm 30..ish... and own more film cameras then digitals. I recently got a used F100 just for kicks because I love film, and I love that thing. At the moment the ratio is actually 4 : 1 film to digital.

I just picked up an F100 a couple weeks ago, and I'm falling in love with it.

I'm a totally non-professional enthusiast. I started out with my father's old Minolta SRT-101 which I borrowed for my first trip to Canada. Unfortunately, on at least 4 rolls the transport lever was faulty without me noticing it (or I was just too damn dumb to set the film in correctly). Anyway, the pics from my first canoe trip and the ones from the water plane came back unexposed from the lab. Still, I was hooked. I even got me a couple of disposables for that trip as backup, and I was amazed at how good those pics actually look (put into relation to my expectations on those things).

My next iteration was my father's other camera, a Minolta XE-1 (hardly any younger then the SRT-101), which already featured auto exposure. Its power button was broken though, so I carved a replacement from coconut wood which worked for a couple of weeks - spare parts on it were rare. Took one of my favorite pictures ever with that camera. At some point the replacement switch broke and I started turning it off and on by taking the batteries in and out. Talk about bad startup time...

Then I got myself a D80, which I've been using ever since. I occasionally take out my mom's aunt's Leica M3, which is absolutely amazing, too.

Funny thing is, I'm 30..ish... and own more film cameras then digitals. I recently got a used F100 just for kicks because I love film, and I love that thing. At the moment the ratio is actually 4 : 1 film to digital.

I'm looking into getting either a used D700 or a D800 soon. 5 yr old tech vs. 36MP I don't *really* need - although I'm much more of a landscape than action shooter, so I guess it could turn out right.

OK, I think I remember a couple of the first...late 1950's
No.2 Brownie Model F
Brownie Hawkeye w/flash
Voigtlander Vitomatic II in '59
Minolta SR-3 in '62
And, from about 1971 until the early 21st Century I was off doing other things. My cameras included the two Nikon F bodies, but in the 1990's, and N6006, F100,I believe, then D70, D200, D70s, D90, and finally, the D4. My lens collection has grown by a factor of ten in the last couple years.

The question may be asked as to exactly what I do. A PM can obtain this information. But, actually three stuffed animals do all the work, ha, ha, ha

I was raised by an avid photographer, my mother. She worked at the local camera store near our house. I can still remember her Minolta SLR and her collection of super 8 movie cameras. Our childhood was well documented.

I used one or more iterations of the same awful point and shoot Vivitar for years doing color and b/w. From about 1986 to 1999. Nothing artistic, just day in and day out pics of life on the road. That camera sucked, and I loved it.

I met my wife in 2000 and stayed away from picture taking for awhile, as she was a far superior photographer than I was (and she had an artistically trained eye for detail and composition). She's still a better photographer than anyone I've met, she just doesn't pursue it aggressively for some reason.

Later I bought her a decent Olympus digital point and shoot (3mp, and it shot tifs!). I fell in love with that camera and decided to chase it a bit more again. (she was sick of me borrowing it I think)

I later bought her a D40 when they came out, and I picked up a used D70s. I think I near wore the shutter out on it before I sold it. Best $300 ever spent.

So I've been taking pics religiously since I was 16, and more "seriously" for the last several years. I still love film, but I was never into developing or printing my own. (I owned a screen printing shop, so it was the last thing on my list...)

In the mid 90's in grade school I picked up a Gaf Memo 35 EE at a camera show with my dad and my brothers. It was a yearly thing we always tried to get to. I used that for several years even after I picked up my Nikkormat FTN at yet another camera show. I shot with that till about my senior year in high school then pretty much just stopped taking what I considered pictures.

A couple years later I picked up a digital point and shoot at a pawn shop from their junk bin. Cleaning of the contacts and picking up a good CF card I used the camera on and off. I then lent it to my brother who managed to foul up the CF card contacts inside the camera. I limped by with that camera for a year or so then finally picked a real point and shoot a Canon S50. I used this camera for quite a while till I got tired of not having the flexibility of my FTN from my high school years.

Then late 2010 I decided I was going to get a D7000 but they were constantly out of stock everywhere so I picked a Fuji S2 Pro from eBay. It was a little rough but it cemented my want for the D7000. I had decided on the D7000 since it could use the 35mm f/2 I had picked up with the FTN nearly a decade ago that and all the old Nikon glass that my dad had sitting around doing nothing. He had made the jump to Canon since at the time price/performance and not having AF lenses made more sense to him to jump the ship to Canon. After shooting with the D7000 for over a year and snatching up old glass, messed up glass, and hand me down glass, I wanted another camera that could really take advantage of the full frame lenses that I had been collecting. So Nikon introduced the D800 which was/is everything I had ever really wanted in a DSLR. So ordered in Feb. it showed up in July and was completely worth the wait. I primarily use both cameras for documenting accidental damage on machines at work because I have the ability.

Now that I have been doing that for a while the company is now looking into integrating photography for documenting accidental damage company wide at our few service centers. With the new D800 I have already started using that to work on producing pictures of products for advertising and photos that will be used for advertising in general.

I am admittedly an amateur photographer but have been doing a lot of experimental to me photography and talking with a lot of pro photographers that frequent a local camera store for ideas on how to shoot and the like. I also have shown the guys there some of my lens rebuilding projects that I have pulled off.

So I'd eventually like to do the photography or even just lens repair as a side job/hobby since I enjoy both of them.

7 years ago my allergies got so bad I had to give up the love of my life, golf. So I went out and bought a Lumix advance digital and went to a rock festival. It was there I loss my photog virginity and have been addicted ever since.

As the years went along I've had a D40, D60, D90 and D7000. I swore I'd never jump to FX because of the cost. Then it happened, the Good Lord gave me a winning $10,000 Powerball Lotto ticket, thus came the D800 with the 2.8 lenes.

I shoot for free, never charge doing events. That said, I never do any event that would keep a "REAL" pro-photographer from getting that shoot. The perks I get are greater than any amount of money I could be paid and most importantly, if I ever got laid off from my job I couldn't get unemployment if I charged for my photography.

There's been 3 people who's photography has influenced me, Mark Rebilas, Dan Dry and Diana Deaver. There's people on here that have influenced me as well, as has this forum.

My goals once I retire are to shoot professionally in industrial photography, hopefully on an international level.

My first camera was a Brownie 127 when I was about 6. In about '72 I bought my first SLR, a Yashica TL Electro X with a f/1.7 50mm lens. Shortly thereafter I began to learn about "good glass" vs uh, "less good glass". I set up a darkroom, bought film in bulk etc. When the Nikon FM2 came out, I upgraded. When the Canon AE-1 came out I bought one, but ended up shooting it in manual anyway. The FM2 had a higher shutter speed and worked at all shutter speeds even with a dead battery so I didn't end up switching.

I was originally skeptical about digital. My first digital was a Nikon Coolpix 5700, which convinced me to keep shooting the FM2 unless I wanted a set shot for a digital document. My first digital SLR was D70. The large number of shots available without changing 'film' convinced me to try a DSLR underwater, so I ended up getting a D80 and a Ikelite housing (+ strobes etc). After playing with a D200, I was really impressed with the ergonomics and usability of a higher end body so I moved to a D2X. After that I was spoiled and have had a D3S, D3 and now a D4 along with a D800E.

Commensurate with the advances in cameras have been the advances in digital printing, so I now do all of my own printing (up to 44" x whatever), framing etc; and I generate my own ICC profiles for my printers and the media I use.

I shoot for the joy and as a means of techno/artistic expression. I make enough to cover my expenses and show a very small profit, but for now anyway, I prefer to shoot what I want and allow folks to purchase my work if they like it. I produce large prints for home decoration and I do kids sports as well as providing some photos for print media.

HockeyMan said:
I wouldn't change professions because I'd like to keep photography as something that I'm passionate about. If it was my only source of income, I'm afraid it would become a job.

Same reason I don't really want to do more than a small side income with it. It's more pleasing to be able to just shoot what you enjoy rather than worrying about all of things that come with it being a full time career.

@tcole, your children are the best subjects for portraits! My first child was the reason I bought a D300.

One of my friends bought a Canon rebel something-or-other in 2007 and came over to my house to hang out. Both our daughters were very young and we took pictures together. I had a Nikon Coolpix E5400 from 2003 and when I compared pictures with him later, I was astounded how much better his DSLR photos were. He was only shooting jpeg, but his camera captured so much more detail and rendered the colors so much better I was floored. Since my father shot with a Nikkomat (he bought it in Japan, thus the Japanese spelling) and I really appreciated his photography skills I had to go buy a Nikon DSLR. I used to watch my father develop B&W photos in his dark room when I was a kid.

For the past 2 years, I was the only parent in my child's preschool with a passion for photography, so I became the school photographer. I really learned a lot trying to shoot in sunny outdoor conditions and poorly lit indoor auditoriums. The funny/sad things is, my real passion is for landscape photography and with 2 kids I haven't had any time for that.

I don't get paid because I'm really not good enough to get paid. I have more gear than a hack like me should have, but oh well. Photography is something I really enjoy.

My only regret would be buying the 18-200 VR with my D300. I should have saved a bit more and bought the 24-70 f/2.8 to go along with the 14-24 f/2.8. If I bought the 24-70 f/2.8, I would only have to buy the 70-200 f/2.8 with my upcoming D800 purchase to complete the trinity. The 18-200 is not a bad lens for my level of skill. But I feel like I've outgrown it, I didn't realize that I would.

I would eventually like to become good enough to do landscape and wedding photography on the side and get paid for it, but I wouldn't change professions because I'd like to keep photography as something that I'm passionate about. If it was my only source of income, I'm afraid it would become a job.

In my case I'm very new. My first camera was in July 2008 when I got a Canon PowerShot SD870 IS for my birthday. I pretty much had just wanted a camera for a while to take pictures of things since I had never owned one before and figured it would be fun to have for vacations, etc. Within a few months though I learned how I'd need a lot more camera power to easily photograph some of the primarily indoor events I went to such as Anime Conventions.

So back in 2009 when I wasn't working full time yet and got most of my money back during tax time, I used my refund to get a D40 kit and 55-200 VR. This gave me a lot more than the point and shoot so I was able to get better pictures at conventions as well as in general.

For the next two years I pretty much shot occasionally and learned at a slower rate. In 2011 I decided I wanted to do more than just occasionally shoot pictures and so I began challenging myself to take more photos. Doing so helped me learn a lot and figure out some things. I picked up a D7000 late that year.

Now in 2012 I've started doing a few paid shoots, though I charge very little due to my lack of experience. I'm trying to get into doing Senior portraits because I enjoy doing portraits more than other types of photos.

That's my story... it's so interesting or impressive and I wasn't born when some of you began shooting but hopefully I have a long future of doing this ahead of me :)

Not sure when I started taking picture but it was with all them point-and-shoot style that Canon makes. Then on day in 2010 while assisting some guest on a day tour to Catalina I was handed Nikon DSLR to play with and take pictures of my clients. Need less to say, I fell in love with DSLR and the D7000 was my first "bad-boy." I think most of you now know the path I'm on :D

Started in college (~2004ish) after my roommate and friend both had Nikon film cameras. I never shot film, but got my first digital camera in college. 3.2 MP Kodak with no zoom. Had that for about a year and upgraded to a Fuji S5200. Got tired of not being able to accomplish what I wanted with that (although for just pictures it worked very well) and got my Nikon D5000 a couple years ago. Never taken any class and I learned everything from my friend, reading, or experimenting. Have no training on post processing either (so if mine is horrible you know why!)

I really started shooting landscapes on hikes in college. I always liked animals which is probably my second most photographed subject (probably only second because I have to find them). Then everything else just came along. I don't take many portraits, but I am learning and getting better at those...I have a new favorite subject that is 5 months old and adorable :)

I started in 1964 with an Agfa Silette, then a Yashika Super TL, Pentax Spotmatic, Nikomat, Nikon F2, Nikon D90x, Nikon D100, Nikon D70, and today D300. I did a lot of self-taught B&W printing, then color slides.
I almost only take pictures of airplanes (Warbirds preferably), static or during air shows.
I don't get paid for what I do. I just enjoy it, especially air to air photography.
I might get a V1 (Or V2 if it ever comes out at the Kina… :o) for the simple fact that my D300 + TC 1.4 + 70-200 get really too heavy and old age doesn't help at all… even with VR !

Almost forgot… I collect sub-miniature cameras and have about 100 real good ones, plus about 100 110 toy cameras. They're all cute and don't take up so much room :o)

Wow. As I noted two years ago, I got into photography in 1963 when a friend of mine gave me his old darkroom equipment. I was in the 4th grade at the time. I did my own darkroom work at home until I went to college, where I took over the darkroom in the Botany/Bacteriology department. In grad school, I used the Botany Department darkroom, where I was able to add Cibachrome printing to my ususal B&W work. I also was able to set up a darkroom at the Savannah River Plant, where I was doing my field work. I stopped working in darkrooms when I went to law school. Never quite got around to using a darkroom after that, although I got as close as converting a bathroom to darkroom use back in the late 80s. I started with digital darkrooms (first, Photoshop Elements, then Nikon NX and Lightroom) shortly after they hit the market. Digital and wet darkrooms are totally different worlds. I prefer the digital.

As with Sevencrossing, I started back in the Jurassic period with a Kodak Brownie 127. I actually purchased with some savings a flash attachment with real, one time use, flashbulbs.

In the mid 1960s, I moved up to Pentax slrs (a Spotmatic)--I was a graduate student after all. I kept the Pentax for a long time, I actually still have it. My use of photography waned in the 1990s as my family grew and there really wasn't much money for film and processing. In 2000, I purchased my first digital camera, a Kodak something, at about 1 megapixel. From there my interest was renewed significantly as kids graduated from college. My first digital slr was a Nikon D50 which I promptly dropped in a stream on a backpacking trip above the arctic circle. After 3 days, it dried out.

I now own a D200, a D700 and D800. Photography is simply a hobby for me, one that I take seriously--its very close to fly fishing in the sense of a suspension of time and space when I am serious about having fun.

First camera Brownie 127; 1957. Cambridge, England
We lived a large rented house and to my joy, it had a fully equipped darkroom, left by the previous owner . Envoy Enlarger, Patterson developing tanks, Kodak Safe lights

Then a Voigtländer Vito B; Kontur viewfinder; Weston II; lots of filters in separate leather case; separate range finder; a separate lens hood again in its own leather case; and flash gun that never worked

Next came a Leica IIIf f/2 Summicron; 90mm Elmar; 35mm Summilux and a move up to a Weston IV

Started work as a Photographer in the 60s at Cambridge University, Dept Experimental Psychology - Exakta VX IIa, A truly awful camera but it came with the job
I sold my personal Leica for a Pentax S1a. I also had , and still have, a Rolleicord

Move to Department of Machine Intelligence and Perception, Edinburgh University in the 70s using Nikon Fs a 5x4 Mono rail and wide angel Rollie . At the time, most Photographers in the University were using a leica; by the time I left Edinburgh, they had all changed to Nikon

Then on to Bristol University again Nikon Fs

Worked briefly at Ahmadu Bello University Nigeria, Leicaflex

Late 70s Gave up Professional Photography, to to become a professional Balloon Pilot ( set up Bristol Balloons) used Olympus 35mm Mju I must have got through 6 of them, nothing went wrong with them , just did not always survive my balloon landings

5 years ago, sold Bristol Balloons and returned to Professional photography, although now somewhat retired

In looking over some of the latest threads about cameras and lenses, the idea of a member's background in photography was coming up in my mind. So, if anyone wants to add a story here, I will give a brief outline, but will qualify this with "as best I remember." I think I began in about 1958 with a Voigtländer, purchased a Minolta SR-3 in 1960, and also a Minolta Autocord, Zenza Bronica with Nikkor lenses, and finally a Nikon F in the early 1960's. Had Minox, the one which shot 8mm film, and a Canon 7 with f/2 Leitz Summicron.

In the latter part of the 1960's I used Deardorf view cameras up to 11" X 14" in the studio, when I went to the lead position at a new studio, a couple Hasselblads, two Sinar view cameras and two Nikon F's.

Also, one's darkroom experience might be added in if appropriate. And this is part of my story from the early 1960's as I built my own with fiberglass sink with a little help from a friend.

I got started with SLRs in the early 1960s at Grinnell College in Iowa. they had a darkroom that photo club members could use for free. So I did black and white film and printing. You only had to pay for your own film and print paper; the school provided all the equipment and chemicals. It was great; spend all night in the darkroom then go to an 8am class....

Used a Minolta and some Nikon in those early years, then my eyes went bad and I couldn't focus the darn things, so I dropped out of photography. I was angry and resentful. I didn't even really use a cheapo camera. I just didn't take pictures. But finally about two years ago I got a digital camera that had autofocus. It was a new world for me. This past year I got a "premium" Canon point and shoot, an SX10is and joined a couple of photo groups and have been having a ball.

In College I got paid $ .35 for each black and white photo that I took. I went around campus and took photos of different events and sold prints to my fellow students. I also had photos printed in the year books. That is the only money received for photos.

At this point, I have no desire to sell a photo. My wish is to be able to take good enough photos that my wife and I would put prints of them on our walls AND that friends would look at them and say, "Damn, Nick, that's a great photo!"
Nick V

I began with a Nikon. An F2 Photomic. A Nikkor 50mm f/1.2. A roll of ISO 400 Fujifilm. My first camera since I became serious about photography. It just happened—one day I was pointing and shooting and the next I was struggling with manual photography. But it happens to every photographer. Though the first day on manual is a difficult one, after a few days of plenty of shooting—and experimenting—one can get the hang of it. And I did.

My first camera was a cheap plastic green film camera which allowed you to turn the flash on and off and create artificial panoramas. It was a basic camera, and my results with it were poor—blurry, out-of-focus, and incorrectly exposed shots. Shooting was not a priority in my life. A few years later I upgraded to the weatherproof Olympus ∞Stylus, a slightly more advanced film camera with zoom, more flash options, and a timer mode. I had a “copycat” interest in photography, since my father was shooting I wanted to as well. With this camera, my photographs improved incredibly. Most shots developed correctly technically, allowing my sense of creativity to begin to develop. But I did not want to stay with film much longer. Soon I had my first digital camera—the 3.1 megapixel Nikon Coolpix 3100. With this camera I made amazing achievements—because I believed in myself. I was proud of myself for being a fourth grader with a digital camera. I took lots of photographs and was a photographer for halloween. Within a month I had mastered most features of my camera. I was shooting nearly daily, and most of my shots were exposed and focused correctly. With this new foundation, I could go farther in my exploration of photography. True style differences show up in my photographs about six months later. I noticed colors and patterns, which showed up in my photographs. I learned to use the basic manual mode of the Coolpix and biased the exposure to get the optimum image. One of my photographs got published in the local newspaper (Dragonfly, pictured above, published in the Lexington Minuteman). But in less then two years I was done with my Coolpix. I had read a photography book and learned that the aperture and shutter speed effect how light or dark an image is. When my Coolpix failed to allow me to change these settings, I was ready for a new camera. So we got out my grandfather’s Nikon F2 Photomic. Overall in good condition, the F2 was mainly very dirty on the inside. Learning to use it was the biggest turning point in my photographic career. I learned to use the camera. Not a camera. The original camera. Though the F2’s only electronic feature was a light meter that displayed the exposure of the photograph, within a few days I was able to take decent photographs of static subjects. During our summer vacation, I took many outstanding photos with the Photomic. The manual features were slowing me down, but they did not prevent my creativity from coming out. But after three months of shooting with the F2, I slowed down. It was not convenient shooting on film, though the results were beautiful. In six months, I received my first DSLR—the Nikon D70. And it left me where I am today.

Interested in photography for about four years...my parents used to be into it so I took a film class with their old Minoltas after messing around with some random digital camera my dad had purchased in 2000. In 2007 I got my D50, and applied what I learned from film to digital. Two days ago I finally ordered my D90.

Planning on being a portrait photographer....maybe weddings? We'll see =)